What is an optical compressor? An optical compressor is an analog compressor that uses a light element and optical cell to alter the dynamics of an audio signal.
With so many options to choose from, I've compiled what I consider to be the 10 best optical compressor emulations plugins. There are plenty of excellent analog optical compressors and plugin emulations of such compressors. There are plenty of plugins that aim to emulate analog hardware in an attempt to make digital audio sound more like its nicer-sounding analog counterpart. Plugins are, therefore, invaluable assets for the modern audio engineer. We're currently living in the age of digital audio, and in-the-box mixing within a digital audio workstation is commonplace.
